Long Tail SEO

OK, I've spent the last few days really digging into the long tail SEO concept, and I've decided to devote my blog to it from now on. That's how convinced I am that long tail is the strategy to use for the vast majority of online marketers trying to develop profitable websites.

I've been involved in Internet Marketing since about 1996. I'm no newbie, ok. One of the most common themes I've noted is that people just getting into IM shoot for the moon right out of the gate (sorry for the mixed metaphor there). They pick the most competitive keywords in their chosen niche and then get frustrated and complain when they aren't ranked #1 at Google in a couple weeks. I bet you're chuckling to yourself right now because you've been there, done that, right? I know I have!

Once a new marketer gets over that initial disappointment, they often wonder, "What now?"

I know the answer: chasing the long tail.

In a nutshell, long tail SEO involves writing content and getting backlinks that focus on keyword phrases that are not highly competitive and don't get a lot of daily searches. If you drew a graph of keywords in your niche, with the most competitive and highly searched keywords on the left and working your way to the right in descending order, you'd have a graph that looked like a profile view of the tail end of a small animal, like a rat or a mouse. The fattest part (mouse's butt) would be those keywords that are tough to rank for, but that provide the most search traffic. The skinny part of the graph is the long tail, and represents the long list of lesser searched keywords in your niche. Hopefully that gives you a pretty clear picture of the long tail concept.

Now, here's the really interesting part...

Turns out, more searches are done using long tail keywords than short tail keywords. In other words, the combined number of searches for long tails exceeds the combined total of searches for the most competitive keywords. In fact, Google claims that their analysis shows that the number of completely unique search terms is about the same as the number of common search terms.

Think about that for a second. What does it mean? It means searchers are getting more sophisticated and looking with more specificity than ever before. Whereas in, say, 1999, a lot of people looking to buy a car searched Google with the word "cars"... now they're using a phrase like "2009 Ford Mustang for sale."

That, friends, is why long tail is where it's at! "2009 Ford Mustang for sale" is a long tail keyword... "cars" is not.

OK, if you sold cars (including Ford Mustangs), would you rather have a visitor come to your site from a search using the word "cars" or from "2009 Ford Mustang for sale"? This is another aspect of long tail SEO that must be grasped. Someone searching for "cars" may or may not be interested in buying a car, right? Maybe they're just looking for pics of cars, or they're doing a report on the history of cars, etc. But someone searching for something as specific as "2009 Ford Mustang for sale" is about 99% likely to be in the market to buy one. So, again, which visitor do you want?

Let me tie this all together, in case you're still not convinced that long tail SEO is the way to go. Long tail keywords:

1. Are easier to rank for. In most cases, a LOT easier!
2. Bring you more targeted traffic. And targeted = higher converting (more sales, more opt-ins, etc.).
3. Bring traffic faster. Most of the time, you'll start getting search traffic in a matter of days, not weeks or months. Try that with an ultra-competitive short tail keyword!

Let me finish by being clear about one thing. I'm not arguing that scoring a high ranking for a highly searched keyword in your niche wouldn't be ideal and better than the same ranking for any single long tail keyword. What I am telling you is that to get a high ranking for one of those top keywords, you need to be prepared to invest a lot of time (and/or money if you outsource) to crack the top 10 at Google. I'm talking about months and possibly years.

If you're a person (like me) who does not have that kind of patience, long tail keywords will become your best friend. You will crack the Top 10 over and over again, if you're smart about choosing long tails that can be conquered without a lot of work. Will your site be overrun with traffic? Not at first, nope. But if it motivates you to keep going by seeing top 10 Google rankings start accumulating pretty quickly, then over time you will absolutely build a traffic monster. And, it'll be targeted traffic that is looking for what you're offering.

Can it get any better than that? I submit that it cannot.

John